Behavioral and ecological factors influence dispersion. Uniform patterns of dispersion are generally a result of interactions between individuals like competition and territoriality. Clumped patterns usually occur when resources are concentrated in small areas within a larger habitat or because of individuals forming social groups.
Full Answer
What is clumped dispersion?
Clumped dispersion is when individuals in a population are clustered together, creating some patches with many individuals and some patches with no individuals.
Why do animals show clumped dispersion?
Carnivores like wolves and lions form packs to increase their hunting efficiency. Packs, herds, flocks, and schools all represent clumped dispersion patterns. Because plants can't get up and move around, they often show clumped dispersion simply due to lack of dispersal.
What is the difference between uniform and clumped dispersion patterns?
Uniform patterns of dispersion are generally a result of interactions between individuals like competition and territoriality. Clumped patterns usually occur when resources are concentrated in small areas within a larger habitat or because of individuals forming social groups.
Why do organisms have clumped distributions?
Clumped patterns usually occur when resources are concentrated in small areas within a larger habitat or because of individuals forming social groups. At large spatial scales most organisms appear to have clumped distributions because their habitats are not uniformly distributed over wide areas.
What type of dispersion are humans?
The dispersion of human population can occur in three ways: Uniform: The individuals are uniformly spread and equally spaced from each other in a given area. Random: The individuals are distributed randomly in a given area and no pattern can be predicted.
Why do humans live in clumped dispersion?
Clumped dispersion is often due to an uneven distribution of nutrients or other resources in the environment. It can also be caused by social interactions between individuals. Additionally, in organisms that don't move, such as plants, offspring might be very close to their parents and show clumped dispersion patterns.
Are humans uniform distribution?
Patterns of Dispersion Most people would describe this as a random pattern in space. However, if you look closely you will notice that individuals are not actually randomly distributed, they are maintaining a fairly uniform distance between each other.
What is an example of clumped dispersion?
Clumped dispersion. In a clumped dispersion, individuals are clustered in groups. A clumped dispersion may be seen in plants that drop their seeds straight to the ground—such as oak trees—or animals that live in groups—schools of fish or herds of elephants.
What is the type of distribution of human population?
There are three basic patterns of population distribution: they can equally-spaced apart (uniform dispersion), randomly spread out with no predictable pattern (random dispersion), or bunched in groups (clumped dispersion).
Which is an example of a clumped distribution of a population quizlet?
What is a clumped/aggregated distribution? When the animals are clustered around each other in small groups. An example of this would be like schooling fish or herds of elephants or packs of wolves.
Which species is most likely to exhibit clumped dispersion?
Clumped dispersion is seen in plants that drop their seeds straight to the ground, such as oak trees, or animals that live in groups, such as schools of fish or herds of elephants.
What animals have uniform dispersion?
Animals that maintain defined territories, such as nesting penguins, also exhibit uniform dispersion. Random dispersion occurs with dandelion and other plants that have wind-dispersed seeds that germinate wherever they happen to fall in a favorable environment.
Which describes a clumped distribution type?
Clumped distribution is the most common type of dispersion found in nature. In clumped distribution, the distance between neighboring individuals is minimized.
What type of survivorship curves do humans typically display?
The survival curve of modern humans is described as a classic “Type-I”, where the probability of survival is high until relative old age, whereby it then declines rapidly, which is typical of many large mammals.
What is the most common population dispersion?
clumped distributionA clumped distribution is the most common type of population dispersion.
Why do most populations live in clumps?
Most populations live in clumps. Why clumps? 1. The resources a species needs vary greatly in availability form place to place, so the species tends to cluster where the resources are available.
Density
Density can be estimated in a variety of different ways depending on the organism and habitat you are sampling. Quadrat sampling is one-way ecologists accomplish this. Quadrat sampling involves deciding what size and shape of area you will sample and deciding how many samples to take.
Dispersion
How individuals are arranged in space can tell you a great deal about their ecology. For instance, Figure 1 shows the distribution of a hypothetical species. Most people would describe this as a random pattern in space.
References and Recommended Reading
Blackburn, T. M., Cassey, P., & Gaston, K. J. Variations on a theme: Sources of heterogeneity in the interspecific relationship between abundance and distribution. Journal of Animal Ecology 75, 1426–1439 (2006).
